Nightmare
by roxygoth
Summary: Cal ran into the room. His baby brother was tossing, turning and banging his fist into the wall. One night only? Yeah, like that was happening.


Hey, Roxy Goth here, so this is my first time at writing a casualty fic, feedback would be brilliant.

I watched the latest episode of casualty [18/10/14] today [a little late – so sue me.] and I love the Ethan/Cal brotherly bonding and general fluffiness, so I decided to write this.

It takes place during the first night they've moved in together, by the way in regards to Cal's dream…I'm sorry, it typed itself.

I do not own casualty or any associated characters.

Well, the night was going great, Cal decided, looking at the pretty girl opposite him. He couldn't believe his luck, he'd walked into the pub with Ethan Max and Lofty and there she was.

He'd sat opposite her and it turned out her name was Ella and she was a doctor as well. So they'd talked, making their way through a glass or three of champagne. Then he'd asked the question "Do you want to come back to my place?" of which the answer was yes.

So they walked up and there it was: his mansion. "Oh my god! Cal you're fantastic!" Ella squealed.

"I know, want me to carry you in?"

"Yes please!" so he picked her up and she opened her mouth and…screamed? Hold on a minute…

Cal bolted upright, confused. What was going on? One minute he was with Ella and the next he was…actually that was a good point, where was he? It didn't look familiar.

As his eyes adjusted to the dark he realised he was in Ethan's new flat – no wonder it didn't look familiar. Then he sighed realising that meant that Ella was a dream, actually he wasn't really surprised, since when did he own a mansion? However if it was a dream then why could he still hear that screaming…

Ethan. As soon as his brain clicked into gear Cal was up, of the sofa-bed he'd been sleeping on and running into Ethan's room. His baby brother was obviously in the middle of a nightmare. He was tossing and turning and banging his fist repeatedly into the bookshelf that was next to the bed.

When Cal had placed the furniture in Ethan's room it had seemed a good idea to put the bookshelf next to the bed, Ethan liked reading himself to sleep, but now he was cursing himself for ever coming up with such a thought. It was a miracle his brothers hand wasn't bleeding.

It took Cal all of 10 seconds to observe this and the next thing he knew he was shaking Ethan by his shoulders and yelling. "Ethan! ETHAN! Wake up!" A couple more rounds of that and Ethan awoke with a blood-curdling shriek that would make a banshee wince. He looked around wildly. "What? Where?"

"Whoa, steady on buddy, you're in your flat, remember? We moved in earlier." Cal silently prayed Ethan hadn't noticed the 'we', when Cal had proudly presented the flat to him and begged his brother to allow him to stay the night his brother agreed, on the condition it was 'just for one night'. Yeah, like after this Cal was going to allow that to happen, Ethan would be lucky if he got Cal out within the next six months.

"But…but. No. car…arguing…dead…everyone dead…"

Cal frowned, obviously Ethan had re-enacted the crash dream-style, but by the sounds of it everyone had died. "No, Ethan, listen, you're alright. Everyone's alright." He'd barley got the words out when Ethan threw his arms around Cal and hugged him, which shocked Cal tremendously, he had to subtly pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming again, Ethan hadn't hugged him like this since he was 13 and decided that now he'd reached the teenage years he was a 'big boy' and 'big boys' don't need hugs.

Obviously that had been forgotten as Ethan was now hugging him so tightly he was practically cutting of Cal's air supply. Cal banged the younger man on the back to make him release his grip a little. "Alright?" Ethan muttered. "Everyone?"

"Yes. Everyone's fine." Cal decided now was not a good time to remind him about Jeff's death; he'd leave that for now.

"Ash?"

"Still got a bit of a gamy leg, but he's on his way to recovery."

"Connie?"

"Back to her normal ice queen self, honestly, I thought he floor was going to freeze when she walked over it today."

Ethan chuckled slightly, before asking. "Lilly?"

"Oh – she's back to her usual blunt self, do you not remember her starting the day with the sentence 'A man's penis has got caught in his zip?"

Ethan laughed a little louder at that and finally released his death grip completely. "Alright, that's fine. I just…had a nightmare. That's all."

"Wanna talk about it?"

Ethan went silent at that and Cal mentally kicked himself for asking. He'd been about to back-track when Ethan spoke. "We all got in the car. Then we drove. Then we argued. Then suddenly it all went black, and when I woke up I was looking down at a funeral. It was there funeral. All four coffins lying there still. And then Charlie said, 'And now for the final coffin." And there it was, my coffin, with…my...name…on it…" And with that Ethan burst into a fresh wave of tears and Cal numbly rocked him. Dear god, that sounded like a horrible dream. No wonder Ethan had been screaming his head off.

They stayed like that for a couple of minutes at least until Cal realised Ethan had literally fell asleep in his arms, after successfully manoeuvring his brother back into his own bed, without waking him up [Cal privately thought he deserved a medal for that – Ethan was a ridiculously light sleeper] Cal headed to the sofa-bed picked up a couple of pillows and arranged them to form something vaguely resembling a bed next to Ethan's. Then he got the blanket Ethan had given him of the sofa-bed as well and draped that over. Then he crawled in, spent about half an hour trying to find a suitable position to sleep in, before drifting of.

Of course the next morning was started with Ethan nearly standing on him and then lecturing all though breakfast about 'why floors are not suitable for sleeping on' and Cal rolled his eyes and politely told his precious baby brother to shut the hell up before he was forced to gag him. But as they got in the car, ready to start work, a secret smile told Cal everything he needed to know.

Thank you for everything.


End file.
